Week 85: Unforgettable Days!

Holaaaaa

This week was incredible. The miracles just do not cease to flood down from the windows of heaven.

Joshua and Charlotte got baptized!! These two siblings were just so ready to make this covenant with the Lord. They are just such happy, obedient, and intelligent people. Leading up to the baptism, the power kept going out and thanks to the very advanced city planning of Honduras, no power = no water. The baptismal font was suuuper dirty so we needed A LOT of water to clean and disinfect that puppy. Well on Saturday there was no power all day but we decided to try again and go to the church at night. As we got off the bus, we saw a very dark church building across the highway but with a lot of faith we went to go get the church keys from the bishop and as soon as we were walking up to the church again, all of the lights turned on!! It was a total miracle that allowed us to really clean the font (it needed it).

Yesterday, the power went out again and we were already trying to come up with alternative locations to hold the baptism. However, the power came back on and we were able to fill up the font for the baptism that night. 15 minutes before the baptismal service, you guessed it, the power went out again! We already had everything all set up in the church so we just went through with it and during the ordinance, the men held up flashlights pointed on the font. In all the darkness, the only light was in the water shining on those in white. Amidst the darkness, the work of the Lord pressed forward. Right after the ordinance was finished, the power came back on! Right at the moment that these siblings spiritually left the dark and entered into the light of Christ, all darkness in the building was swallowed up in light. It was a beautiful service and the other Elders made some delicious cinnamon rolls to top it all off. The Lord is in every detail and His work will never be frustrated.

I had interviews with President McClellan once again this week and he basically told me all of his plans for my last two transfers so that was fun.

We also did some service at a member's suuuuper pretty house this week.

Some other miracles:

There is a man who has taken missionary lessons for multiple years who lives about 3 hours away from our house walking. The only thing that kept him from getting baptized was that he wasn't married to his girlfriend (an inactive member). We had never met him and frankly didn't know he existed until a member told us about him and told us that he is getting married on Friday! Out of nowhere, this dude showed up to church on Sunday for the first time in over a year with his fiancé!! We are going alllll the way out there this week to visit them and help them get one step closer to the temple.

The grandma of one of the new members here, Xiomara, has always been present in almost every lesson with Xiomara. However, she is Catholic, 81 years old, and can barely walk, so the missionaries didn't really focus too much on teaching her. Well this week, we were teaching Xiomara and her grandma was sitting there with us and I just received the strongest impression to ask her grandmother if she wanted to be baptized. She responded immediately saying that she would love to be baptized and because after having heard the missionaries teach her granddaughter for a year, she believes her first baptism wasn't complete and that she needs the remission of her sins before she leaves this earth. To spare the details and your time, by much divine intervention, she somehow arrived at church and loved it. She has very poor health and all of her children were telling her that leaving the house could maybe kill her but she showed her faith and God poured out his Spirit upon her. She looked many years younger in church. Everything about that experience was exhilarating and almost unbelievable. But isn't that just the fun of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ? 😁

One of the investigators of the other elders referred her friend to us and we visited her this week. She is 18 and is really just trying to change the trajectory of her life. She loves the Lord but expressed to us the difficulty she has with choosing Him over the temptations of the world. She asked us how us missionaries have been able to do it and we explained how we don't do it alone. We have the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She asked us some more questions and the Book of Mormon perfectly and simply answered each one. Our eyes were filled with tears and she readily and excitedly accepted the invitation to be baptized.

While on exchanges, my companion found an inactive member who got baptized in New York many years ago. Her boyfriend recently had many accidents due to certain addictions and this caused him to be very open to changing his life. She had been explaining the Gospel to him when the missionaries passed by. They invited them inside and cleared up all of his doubts about the Restoration. They came to church yesterday, attended the baptismal service, and are preparing to get married.

It is a very humbling and fruitful time in this corner of the world and I feel so blessed to be on the Lord's errand.

With so much love,

Élder Snyder

Week 84: 12 Years in the Making

Another week down. Quite possibly one of the fastest weeks ever (hence the lack of pictures, sorry mom).

Transfers happened and now Elder MacDonald is training a gringo so now there are 4 gringos in the ward and the reactions of some of the members were priceless.

This week, we saw some incredible miracles with the people we are teaching. Joshua bounced back and forth more and more between his baptism this Sunday and waiting more time to get baptized. We had an incredible lesson with him on Thursday. We were able to just talk with him and figure out what was holding him back and he said that he had had a dream of him and his little 2 year-old brother in the baptismal font at the same time, however, his little brother was “around the age of 8” in the dream. He believed it to mean that he should wait a few years to be baptized.

When he told us that, the impression immediately came to my companion and I that his dream was not him getting baptized with his brother, but him baptizing his little brother. When I was 8 years old, for some reason that I do not remember, I asked my older brother Zach to baptize me. Also, for a reason I also don't really remember, my mom and I printed out a picture of just my brother and I together in white right before my baptism. I shared my experience with Joshua and how he too will receive the priesthood authority after being baptized and will be able to be the right example for his little brother and help him make his first covenant with God in a few short years. I gave him the picture I had and invited him to pray about his dream. 

2 days later, he told us that he wants to go through with his baptism on Sunday. God's divine design of the years and eternities is something that is incomprehensible for me. I am in awe of his perfect care and perfect timing. I am excited to continue seeing these miraculous details over the course of my life. Please keep Joshua and Charlotte in your prayers so that everything goes smoothly leading up to Sunday!

Other things:

We were pretty sure that a new member of the other elders was in love with us and this week she bought us all a super nice valentine's day tres leches cake. Twas delicious and I think our suspicions were confirmed.

An old lady we are teaching basically just talks trash about her old church the whole time we teach her and she is so hyped to come to church. Please pray for Carmen so that she can find someone to take care of her disabled brother so she can attend on Sundays.

Elder Prior had his first fluid conversation in Spanish with Joshua's dad and it was a very proud dad moment for me. Dude has learned Spanish so fast.

The cheese here continues to be awful. Woulda thought that in 20 months I would get used to it.

This week, I read Words of Mormon 1:7 in my personal study which states, “And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will.” It was humbling to be able to see the truth of these words reveal themselves in my life this week with Joshua and my brother Zach. How could this Gospel not be true? It's too good, too happy, too “worth it”, too perfect to not enjoy.

With so much love,

Élder Snyder

Week 83: Hasta vernos en Guate

This week we saw the hand of the Lord a lot.

I want to share 3 of the many experiences we witnessed.

First, about 2 weeks ago, I was on exchanges with Elder Sarmiento in my area and all of our lessons for the night had fallen through. We started contacting everyone we saw and we eventually spoke with a woman selling pollo con tejadas (I highly recommend it) and she seemed interested, gave us her number, and told us where she lived. Well fast forward to this week. We had written her a few times but she never answered so we decided to just go find her house. We asked someone if they knew where she lived and they told us where to go. Well we made the greatest mistake ever after that in knocking the wrong door.

We found a sweet old woman named Carmen. She told us she was busy but that she wanted us to come back the next day. During our visit the next day, she told us that her 2 older sisters had been living in Tegucigalpa (the capital city) for 40 years and for all 40 of those years they were faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her oldest sister had recently passed away and because of that, her other sister moved back to our area to be close to family. For 5 months, this faithful member had not been able to attend church because she didn't know where it was. On Saturday, we returned to Carmen's house and this time met her sister. She told us all about her baptism and her experiences in the temple and her love for the Church. We gave her all of the information she needed to attend church and she will now be bringing her sister Carmen, a nonmember, with her each Sunday. (And the original woman we found selling pollo con tejadas didn't want anything once we did find her hahaha) It is just a great feeling to know that the Lord is using you as an instrument in his perfectly orchestrated performance.

Second, once again, all of our plans fell through at night so we started knocking doors. Eventually, a young father opened the door. I immediately knew he was special because he was wearing a Lakers shirt. He immediately started to try and find a polite way to tell us he wasn't interested and we asked if we could at least gift him a pamphlet. He accepted. As I wrote down all of the information necessary to get to church on Sunday or contact us on the back of the pamphlet, he asked “Why on earth would you guys leave the United States to come live here in Honduras?” After a little bit of exchanged laughter, we told him that it is because we know that our message changes lives because it has already filled our own lives with joy. Just then, his two little daughters ran outside to join in on the conversation. One of which only had one arm, accompanied by one of the happiest smiles I had ever seen. The man then out of nowhere invited us over to his house for dinner next Saturday night. We were honestly quite shocked haha he went from rejecting us to offering us dinner and a visit within seconds. The Spirit is just so real and when we listen to the questions he asks us, our hearts can be changed.

And third, prayer is real. Prayers are answered. Joshua and Marbely both agreed to be baptized with their sister on the 23rd! We are so excited seeing this family progress. The parents just gotta figure out getting married and they will follow suit in no time. However, Joshua still has many doubts so please keep him in your prayers!

Other stuff:

---Just said bye to Elder Dávila for who knows how long 🥲 nah I'm already planning the trip to Guatemala

---I got a hat and it's actually saving my life.

---Went on exchanges with Elder MacDonald and we did some fun impromptu service and we ended up on top of a mountain slurping some fresh coconuts. Twas lit.

This week was a week where I think I was more tired/physically exhausted than ever. But man it is just so worth it. I love being in the service of the Lord. 

I can't say the same about the Honduras heat but ni modo haha

Thank you all for your prayers!

I want to share a verse I recently read that I just love. Jacob 4:11 “Wherefore, beloved brethren, be reconciled unto him through the atonement of Christ, his Only Begotten Son, and ye may obtain a resurrection, according to the power of the resurrection which is in Christ, and be presented as the first-fruits of Christ unto God, having faith, and obtained a good hope of glory in him before he manifesteth himself in the flesh.”

It's simple. Just trust him and everything will be okay.

With so much love,

Élder Snyder

Week 82: Iguana Season

Helloooo!

We had another fantastic week out here in Campana. We have been able to develop a really solid and large teaching pool of people who are interested in the restored gospel and we are truly just seeing the hand of the Lord every day.

A cool experience we had this week was a lesson with a super inactive family that we have started visiting a lot because there are many children/grandchildren who are not members. We showed up one night and to our “luck”, not a single non-member was present. At first, I thought, “if none of these people we are preparing for baptism are here, it's not worth our time to enter this house.” Oh, how wrong was I. The grandfather of this family, the first member and most inactive of them all expressed to us how much happiness he was newly finding in his life from the messages we had been sharing with him and his grandchildren. We then proceeded to talk about the temples and the promised blessings that the Lord has offered to this family by making covenants with Him there. The Spirit was so strong in this home and we really saw a new light of faith ignite in these pioneers who had wandered a little bit off of the path. As we left, I was so grateful for taking that time to visit, listen to, teach, and promise this family specific and special blessings. I was humbled by the Lord once again and learned that missionary work goes a lot deeper than the surface.

We had an activity with all of the youth and young single adults of the ward and it was so fun playing games with them and getting to know them and their friends a little bit better.

Other stuff:

---I thought I knew spanish until I told my barber to only cut ¾ of an inch of hair off the top but I think he understood 3-4 inches. Good thing hair grows 😌

---We ate iguana and I highly recommend. Twas delicious.

---Just went to some medieval fortress on the beach over in Omoa which was cool. I grabbed an iguana's tail there so that was lit.

---Played volleyball with the ward for the first time in many months and let's just say that much physical therapy will be done in the coming months 🤠

One thing I learned this week was something about a prophet's or apostle's invitation. When they say that they invite us to do something, no matter what it may be, they don't say, “I invite everyone of you, except (your name), you're off the hook”. Each invitation is for you and me! And they promise us blessings propheticly! Now as I study conference talks, my focus is to identify the invitation and promised blessings that these representatives of the Lord offer us and I find so much more meaning and hope in each message.

With much love,

Élder Snyder